THE Ipswich Jets have defeated the North Qld Young Guns 32-16 in their Qld Cup fixture at Bendigo Bank Oval on Saturday. Under bleak skies & showers sweeping across the ground it was the northern visitors that started the game the best with tries to centre Wallace Solomona & five-eighth Michael Meigan & a conversion to Nat Bowman had the Young Guns leading 10-0 after only ten mintes. After a long period of being under pressure & making silly mistakes the Jets finally got their act together with a smart try from dummy half by Jamie Tomlinson which was converted by Steve West to reduce the margin to 10-6 & then in the next set a big kick down field by Brendan Lindsay was met with a great Ipswich chase which forced the error from North Qld winger Simon Phillips who dropped the ball straight to Marcus Jensen who put Jermaine Alberts in for his first ever Qld Cup try, Steve West then kicked a great sideline conversion & after being outplayed for the majority of the half Ipswich led at half time 12-10. The second half started brilliantly for the home side with a try in the 5th minute by Ricky Bird & after the conversion Ipswich held an 18-10 advantage. The visitors then reduced the margin to two after Nat Bowman picked up a bouncing ball & then bamboozled the Ipswich defence with amazing footwork to go in adjacent to the post & duly converted & with 25 minutes remaining Ipswich led 18-16. The Jets then lifted a gear & scored tries to Ricky Bird & Brendan Lindsay & a conversion to West gave the Jets a commanding 28-16 lead with 8 minutes to play before West finished the game with a try in the corner after a good backline move & with the kick missing Ipswich had a hard fought 32-16 win to move up to 23 competition points. Ipswich travel to Davies Park next week to play Souths-Logan while the Young Guns play host to defending champions Redcliffe.

AFTER last week?s bruising encounter with the North Queensland Cowboys, Melbourne Storm will lick its wounds this week and attempt to overcome injury as it prepares to take on the Brisbane Broncos at Olympic Park this Sunday.

CANBERRA forwards Ian Hindmarsh and Luke Davico are in doubt for Saturday night's National Rugby League clash with Wests Tigers. The pair missed yesterday's one-point victory over St George Illawarra at Kogarah, with second-rower HINDMARSH battling a calf injury and prop Davico struggling to overcome a hand problem.

THE Olympic Sharks are set to abandon Shark Park for the 2003/2004 NSL season and have made an ambitious bid to relocate to Jubilee Oval. It is understood that the perennial nomads of the NSL competition have made a formal application to the St.George Leagues Club for the use of the venue. While a decision on the application is imminent, the appropriateness of having Olympic based at Kogarah needs to be investigated. In recent times Olympic have played at a variety of grounds such as Barton Park, Leichhardt Oval, Belmore Oval and Shark Park. While playing out of Kogarah may be beneficial for Olympic, there is no guarantee that Olympic is willing to commit long-term to the St.George district and contribute to the maintenance and improvement of Jubilee Oval.